LAUSR

Abstract In search of the scenario of the star formation process, fragmentation of molecular clouds has been modelled under two different conditions. In the first case, thermal instability along with an equation of state with negative polytropic indices (n) has been considered which give rise to minimal fragment masses in the range 0.001M⊙ to 8.5 M⊙ for −10 n ≠ − 1 . In the second case, an opacity limited fragmentation along with positive polytropic indices is considered which lead to a wide range of minimal fragment masses resulting in field stars, massive stars, and star bursts. This might be due to the effect of opacity which is responsible for slow dissipation of heat in a compressed medium.